Are you living an authentic life?

Are you being truthful to yourself and those around you about what you value and what is truly important in your life?

Do you know what you truly value?

Do you really?

I would ask you to spend some time thinking about your values.

Make a list of as many values as you can think of that are important to you.  Some examples would be: family, security, faith, friendships, tolerance, optimism, respect, intelligence, health, openness, love, compassion, etc., etc. Try to come up with at least 25 values and write them out on a sheet of paper.

When you are done look carefully at that list and circle YOUR top 5. There is no right or wrong answer. What are the 5 MOST IMPORTANT values to you?

Now, write the five down on a file card or fresh sheet of paper.

Now, here is the tough part. Consider each value one at a time and think of a couple concrete examples of how you bring that value to life. How are you living that value?

Next, ask your spouse, another family member, a close friend, or even a colleague to look at the list and ask them if they agree. Do they see you living these values?

If you cannot come up with multiple concrete examples of you living a value, 

and/or if the person reviewing your list doesn’t see you living a value, chances are you have a value on the list that is more of a wish than a real value.

The what and how that you live every day really does tell you which values are truly important to you on the inside. Again, there is no right or wrong; no good or bad.

Now I am not saying that you cannot have values you aspire to. And yes, you can change your behavior to incorporate other values. But how you act today results partly from what you actually value; the real list and not a wish list.

Knowing what you truly value (what you actually live) will help you on your success journey. Truly successful people are authentic. They know who they are; they know what they value; and they align their actions accordingly.

They have taken the time to learn who they are and they have organized their lives and behaviors around the values that are truly important to them. They naturally bring energy and passion to everything they do because they are living an honest life with themselves.

True success requires you to live in harmony with yourself. Everyone has different top 5 values, and everyone lives those values in different ways. But if you truly live your values, you will more easily find the success in all areas of your life you desire.

You will exude a natural confidence and authenticity that others will pick up on. You will become someone people want to be involved with. Someone people will want to work with and help. Someone people will respect, admire and maybe even emulate.

It all starts with authenticity. And authenticity starts with knowing what you value and bringing those values to life and light each and every day.